Thongsbridge U/11 Cricket Team v Slaithwaite (Away) Sunday 12 August  2007

Thongsbridge’s penultimate match of the season was away at Slaithwaite. The weather was mixed with showers one moment followed by bright sunshine. Gabriel Cullaigh was captain in the absence of Alex James and he won the toss and elected to field first.

After a steady start by both the Slaithwaite opening pair and the Thongsbridge bowlers it was Fabian Cullaigh who took the first wicket in the fourth over, clean bowling one of the openers. Fabian bowled his three overs straight through and returned a season best of 2-9. Slaithwaite were finding runs hard to come by thanks to some accurate bowling from Jack Downing, John Hodgson, Jack Wilson and Emmeline Myall. Once again the fielding was excellent with both Jack Wilson and John Hodgson close to getting caught and bowled. Tommy Woodhead was again outstanding in the covers with some athletic fielding on a small ground where every run saved would be a bonus. Emmeline took 2-1 in one over and really put the skids under Slaithwaite. Some late runs enabled the home team to post 255-6 (207).

The challenge for the Thongsbridge batsmen was to bat sensibly and steadily accurate the runs required, however their track record in chasing down low scores was not great this season.

Tommy Woodhead and Jack Wilson opened the batting and did really well. Tommy was the more aggressive of the 2 and scored an excellent 17 not out with some fine shots. The running between the wickets was good and some good singles were taken. Fabian Cullaigh and Jack Downing continued the good work with some well judged singles and good defence. One of the highlights of the Thongsbridge innings was John Hodgson who batted really well for 9 runs, a great effort. Gabriel Cullaigh and Emmeline Myall were the last pair to bat and Thongsbridge looked in a great position, however the Slaithwaite opening bowler came back and in 2 overs took 3-4 to make it a tense finish. Gabriel and Emmeline however saw the team home with some good singles and stout defence.

 A really good game played in a good spirit. This was a really good win for Thongsbridge given that Slaithwaite were above them in the table. Good individual performances all round, however there was some good running between the wickets and some straight bowling. It was good to see that some of the things worked on in practice came to fruition in the game.

Next game: v Armitage Bridge, home, Sunday 19  August 2007 – subject to confirmation as Armitage Bridge are having problems raising a team.

Friday night practice nights will continue until the end of August.

Andy Coldrick